We’ve all obtained cringe-worthy fundraising messages that simply don’t really feel fairly human. They’re imprecise, don’t clarify the impression of the donation, and ask for an arbitrary sum of money. If an enchantment feels prefer it was written by a robotic, it probably was generated by AI.
Such subpar messages stands out as the cause that 63% of fundraisers really feel uncomfortable utilizing AI for customized donor communications. Whereas AI is usually touted as a technique to hyper-personalize fundraising efforts, to many fundraisers, AI could make communications appear much less private, much less genuine.
However right here’s the factor: AI doesn’t must really feel creepily robotic or impersonal. When used thoughtfully, AI can truly provide help to be extra human and strengthen your genuine connections with donors. Its worth lies in fixing advanced, role-specific issues—like aiding a fundraiser in making the best ask.
On this article, we’ll discover the ability in aligning AI applied sciences and methodologies by displaying you ways AI can help each stage of the ask, finally serving to you elevate extra {dollars} on your group, with out being creepy.
Beginning with the Finish in Thoughts: The Excellent Ask
Earlier than we soar into AI’s capabilities, let’s cowl the weather of the proper ask.
- Proper timing: When to make an ask is dependent upon quite a lot of components just like the donor’s curiosity, engagement, and giving historical past.
- Actual relationships: Making an ask for a donation instantly after assembly somebody is like asking to borrow a automobile from somebody you simply met—there isn’t sufficient belief constructed to warrant the interplay. As an alternative, fundraisers ought to create a sequence of touchpoints, constructing the muse of the connection earlier than making the ask.
- Real interactions: If you make the ask, you don’t need it to really feel like a one-to-many communication. You need to know the donor properly sufficient that you may reference private details, and pursuits, and make the request for a donation as for those who’re chatting with a pal or colleague.
- Resonates with donor pursuits: Understanding what aligns (and what doesn’t) together with your donors’ pursuits can information when to and what to ask for.
- Applicable quantity: Deciding on the correct amount is likely one of the tougher points of the ask. Request an excessive amount of and also you threat donors feeling overwhelmed or pressured. Ask for too little and also you miss out on alternatives on your group. Utilizing donor and prospect knowledge, akin to giving historical past and capability, can assist you establish the suitable quantity.
Setting the Basis: Pre-Ask Due Diligence
There are a lot of steps within the donor lifecycle earlier than an ask is made. Thankfully, AI may give you a leg up with every stage and, we promise, it gained’t come off as creepy (for those who don’t let it).
Sensible Donor Analysis
As an alternative of spending hours Googling prospects, looking down LinkedIn profiles, and scanning your CRM for each ounce of data, let AI be your analysis assistant. AI can:
- Flag related information articles about donors’ pursuits that you need to use in your outreach
- Determine potential relationships between donors, akin to household, friendships, or colleagues
- Spotlight vital life occasions that may have an effect on giving
- Monitor engagement patterns throughout your communications
- Use donor location that can assist you decide who to arrange conferences with when touring and optimize routes for a number of donor visits
Professional Tip: Use fundraising-specific AI fashions to assist together with your analysis. For instance, Momentum’s free Chat-GPT is geared particularly towards main reward fundraisers.
The Artwork of Timing
As a result of AI can analyze huge quantities of information in a short time, it excels at figuring out patterns that folks may miss. Use AI to:
- Analyze previous giving historical past to foretell optimum ask timing—this may embody creating dynamic donor plans so you understand the perfect cadence of communications prior to creating the ask
- Monitor engagement metrics to determine when donors are most receptive
- Monitor donor habits patterns to recommend the perfect contact occasions
- Flag potential considerations, akin to slipping engagement or attainable churn
Professional Tip: Use AI to trace seasonal giving patterns alongside private donor milestones. If a donor sometimes offers in This autumn but additionally makes particular items round their birthday, you possibly can plan your outreach accordingly.
Personalization That Feels Genuine
Attempt utilizing AI so as to add private touches to your communications at scale for all donors inside your portfolio:
- Create detailed donor profiles primarily based on interactions and pursuits
- Counsel dialog matters aligned with donor passions
- Draft custom-made communication factors
- Generate customized impression tales related to every donor
Professional tip: When utilizing AI to draft communications, immediate it with examples of your best-performing donor messages. Say, “Write within the model of this profitable enchantment…” relatively than ranging from scratch.
Be taught why AI is a game-changer for main reward officers
Making the Ask: AI as Your Strategic Associate
Discovering the Proper Quantity
Certainly one of AI’s superpowers is its skill to course of staggering portions of information to recommend optimum ask quantities. If you immediate AI for its suggestion on the perfect quantity to ask for, it offers you an estimate primarily based on quite a lot of knowledge factors:
- Previous giving patterns
- Engagement stage
- Response to earlier asks
- Present involvement together with your group
- Latest life occasions
- Giving to comparable organizations
Professional tip: Have a look at the AI-generated quantity first. Folks are inclined to rely closely on the primary piece of data they obtain when making choices (often known as anchoring bias). On this case, the primary donation quantity you see acts as an anchor and influences how a lot you’ll ask for. By asking AI first, your bias is geared towards a data-informed reply.
Crafting the Excellent Pitch
AI can assist you prep the ask by reviewing what labored prior to now. Use AI to:
- Analyze profitable previous pitches for commonalities and ideas
- Determine language that resonates with comparable donor teams
- Counsel speaking factors primarily based on donor pursuits
- Put together responses to potential objections
Professional tip: File your apply pitches and use AI to research your supply and pacing. You can even have AI analyze recordings of previous pitches to evaluate metrics like listening ratio, speaker engagement, and general emotional tone of the assembly.
Including the Human Contact to Cut back the Cringe
We’d be remiss to not tackle tips on how to keep away from being creepy when utilizing AI. A whole lot of the creepiness stems from both an absence of oversight of AI-related use instances or forgetting to include the human contact.
1. Add context. Don’t simply settle for AI ideas blindly. All the time ask your self:
- Does this align with what I do know concerning the donor?
- Would I say this in a face-to-face dialog?
- Does this replicate our group’s voice and values?
And if the reply isn’t sure, let AI know. You could possibly present examples of what you’re in search of or give particular suggestions on how AI’s response doesn’t suit your wants. AI learns by suggestions and adjusts because it learns extra about your group. Use this skill to study to your benefit.
2. Practice your AI device. In the identical vein, you possibly can practice your AI instruments with info particular to your group. This can assist AI present high-quality responses from the get-go. Give AI entry to:
- Your group’s distinctive voice
- Profitable previous communications
- Donor suggestions and preferences
- Your mission-specific language
3. Don’t use AI for every part. Simply because AI can do many issues doesn’t imply it ought to. Keep in mind, AI shouldn’t be a substitute on your job however a strong device that can assist you streamline your workflow and higher interact donors.
Two examples: you may use AI to create a word-for-word script of what to say in your subsequent name with a significant donor, or you may use AI to create a one-page temporary.
In case you recite the script—cringe alert—you’ll sound unnatural, even robotic. However, for those who use the one-page temporary outlining current interactions, giving historical past, the donor’s pursuits, and speaking factors, you stroll into the decision ready, not scripted, not creepy.
Let AI deal with essential background information:
- Information evaluation and sample recognition
- Preliminary analysis and draft content material
- Assembly summaries and follow-up duties
- Engagement monitoring
However preserve human management over the human parts:
- Remaining communication approval
- Relationship technique
- Private interactions
- The precise ask
The Ask: Give AI a Attempt
The aim isn’t to automate your complete fundraising course of. It’s to make use of AI strategically and with intention to make each interplay extra significant, extra private, and simpler.
Now it’s our flip to make the ask—are you able to take AI for a whirl? Discover AI options, like Momentum’s AI-powered Donor Engagement Platform. It helps you enhance your ask and attain the best donor on the proper time with the best message. Plus, it seamlessly connects with Blackbaud fundraising options that can assist you profit from your donor knowledge with Blackbaud’s Intelligence for Good.
